Naman Julka-Anderson and Jo McNamara
500 episodes listed below
Cancer care, told at human speed.
Rad Chat is a clinician-minded interview show about radiotherapy, oncology, cancer experience, and the people working around them. It moves from diagnosis rooms and treatment planning to prehabilitation, health inequalities, disability, HIV, HPV, and the emotional work of care.
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Rad Chat is an oncology and radiotherapy interview show built around the stories that sit behind clinical practice. Its conversations are measured, practical, and unusually willing to stay with awkward realities. Cancer is not treated as an abstract case study. It appears through skin care, waiting for appointments, support groups, treatment tattoos, family life, work, housing, disability, and the effort of making sense of a changed future. The show often lets a guest tell the long version first. Then it turns gently toward what healthcare professionals might do better. That pattern gives the programme its value. A story about anal cancer becomes a conversation about prehabilitation, patient confidence, and the importance of clear advice before treatment starts. A discussion of HIV, HPV, and anal cancer connects specialist nursing, charity work, dual diagnosis, and malignancies in people living with HIV and cancer. A breast cancer episode with Professor Joanna Callaghan moves from filmmaking and family life into a giant inflatable breast exhibition designed to make anatomy and experience more understandable. Career episodes trace how personal illness can shape professional identity, including Jess Singh’s route from Hodgkin’s lymphoma to radiation therapy. Other interviews look outward to services and systems, including accessible clothing, adaptive housing, health inequalities in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, breast imaging, communications work, and Cancer Alliance roles. The tone is knowledgeable, but not remote. It assumes that clinical education improves when patients, practitioners, researchers, and advocates are heard in the same room. The show can be emotionally heavy. It is also grounded and occasionally lightly funny. Its best moments come when a guest’s messy personal detail changes the shape of a clinical point.
Made for: Rad Chat is for radiotherapy and oncology professionals, students, allied health workers, and cancer care teams who want practice-focused learning shaped by patient experience. It also suits listeners interested in how cancer care intersects with disability, inequality, advocacy, and professional development.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by placing lived experience beside clinical education instead of separating them. It turns patient specificity into practical reflection for healthcare professionals, without sanding away the fear, uncertainty, humour, and everyday consequences of treatment.
Rad Chat is a forward-thinking global knowledge hub where healthcare professionals can advance their knowledge and expertise in radiotherapy and oncology by utilising the award winning, first therapeutic radiographer led oncology podcast and social media channels. We're empowering healthcare professionals worldwide by providing free, CPD-accredited radiotherapy and oncology education, by sharing real-world experience, expert insights, best practice and patient perspectives, we're helping healthcare professionals’ advance cancer care and improve patient outcomes.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Patient accounts and practitioner reflection make the consequences of cancer treatment legible beyond the clinic.
Rad Chat keeps cancer care close to the lives it changes. Hosts Jo McNamara and Namanjorka Anderson use guest conversations to connect clinical practice with treatment consequences, professional development and patient experience.
Rad Chat puts the consent form beside real life, where the footnotes suddenly matter to you.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A plainspoken look at hard work, patient care, and staying kind inside imperfect systems.
Rad Chat presents a special collaboration with UK Imaging Oncology and keeps its attention on radiotherapy and oncology practice, career development, and patient perspective.
A humane case for earlier support with movement and nutrition while treatment is still pending.
Claire Laverty's conversation on Rad Chat offers a patient-led account of anal cancer that stays grounded in the small, practical questions that shape care: withdrawing from routine, uncertainty about exercise and diet, and what to do while waiting for treatment.
A candid story about access, grief, and rebuilding life with purpose.
Sarah Phillips's account stays close to the practical side of living with incurable conditions: being told a nursing home was the answer at 31, the need for accessible clothing and accessible homes, and the choice to build an adaptive housing company with a wider social purpose.
A practical look at menopause after cancer treatment, with a clear focus on consent, support, and what patients are told too late.
Rad Chat turns to menopause after cancer treatment with a practical, patient-aware discussion led by Dani. It stays with consent as an ongoing conversation, with repeated explanations, clearer signposting, and a sharper sense of how menopause symptoms can shape daily life.
A candid cancer story that treats movement as support, not a cure-all.
Natalie Hall gives a plainspoken account of living with metastatic breast cancer while keeping Firefly's fitness and daily life moving. The strongest material stays practical: scans, blood tests, treatment, how quickly the diagnosis came, and the Royal Marsden trial that helped…
Local medicine, told through physicians' lives.
Clinical oncology evidence, translated into treatment decisions.
Neurology evidence, translated for clinical judgment.
Professor Joanna Callaghan shares her personal cancer experience and how it led to creating the project 'Goodbye Breast!', while discussing her background as a filmmaker and professor who uses creative storytelling to communicate difficult subjects.
Dr Shah Islam, UKIO president 2026 and interventional neuroradiologist at UCLH's National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, discusses his career path from oncology to neuroradiology and his vision for UKIO 2026 in Liverpool on 8-10 June.
Claire Laverty from Belfast describes her March 2024 anal cancer diagnosis, including a near-miss during her colonoscopy when the endoscopist almost withdrew the scope without identifying the tumor.
This episode features guests Alex Sparrowhawk and Emma Davey discussing the connections between HIV, HPV, and anal cancer, along with insights from the George House Trust, as part of a series for healthcare professionals.
This episode features Jess Synge discussing her journey from childhood cancer survivor to radiation therapist and her career transition, highlighting patient perspectives in oncology.
Dr.
Rad Chat hosts Jo McNamara and Namajorke Anderson interview Sarah Phillips, 34, who at 31 was diagnosed with two rare incurable conditions: HNPP (hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies), which has paralyzed her from the waist down three times, and a metabolic condition requiring nightly enteral tube feeding because her body burns over 5,000 calories per day.
This episode features three healthcare professionals discussing their roles and strategies in addressing health inequalities within the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance.
This episode discusses side effects of radiotherapy, aimed at healthcare professionals for continuing professional development.
A podcast episode featuring a breast cancer survivor discussing her experience with cancer during pregnancy.
A radiotherapy and oncology podcast featuring a breast cancer survivor sharing her experience with radiotherapy.
This episode features a breast cancer patient discussing her experience with BRCA gene testing and the Bloom43 medical device for prehab and rehab after breast surgery.
This episode of Rad Chat features an interview with Shreya Patel-Purik about her women's health podcast and her journey from corporate to podcasting.
This episode features an interview with Sonia Kumar, a physiotherapist turned Member of Parliament, discussing her career journey and leadership in healthcare.
A radiotherapy and oncology podcast featuring a patient's experience with gamma knife treatment for a brain tumour.
Host Jo thanks supporters and reflects on four years of Rad Chat, a podcast providing free CPD-accredited education in radiotherapy and oncology.
Dani brings menopause into the cancer conversation with Rad Chat's hosts.
This episode discusses inclusivity in clinical trials with a PhD researcher, focusing on increasing access for diverse populations.
Healthcare professionals discuss collaborative radiotherapy research strategy and barriers at a regional event.
Healthcare professionals discuss the importance of research in radiotherapy and oncology, exploring motivations and collaborative benefits.
An interview with a head of radiotherapy research discussing her team's work in clinical trials and academic research.
Hosts interview James Munro about using patient feedback to improve radiotherapy research and care quality.
Hosts discuss the importance of in-person meetings for developing a regional research strategy in radiotherapy with a therapeutic radiographer.
Episode 191 starts softly.
This episode features Francesca Fiennes discussing her research on LGBTQ+ breast screening in South East London, focusing on health promotion and equity in healthcare.
This bonus episode features an interview with Debra Montague, founder of ALK Positive Charity, discussing her personal diagnosis journey and the charity's mission in supporting lung cancer patients.
An oncology podcast episode featuring an interview with a medical oncologist about his career and ALK positive lung cancer.
Hosts interview a radiotherapy superintendent about his work and attendance at an LGBTQI+ cancer conference on World Radiography Day.
A live podcast episode from a radiotherapy conference featuring guests discussing their cancer journey and launching a queer cancer awareness initiative.
Hosts interview Dr.
Hosts interview a product marketing director about innovations in radiotherapy, including MRLinac technology and its cost-effectiveness compared to drugs.
A radiation oncologist discusses his career path and research in MR Linac technology at a consortium.
This episode features Tom Netherwood discussing Virtual, a VR software for radiotherapy education aimed at patients, professionals, and students.
This episode features a discussion with Imogen Powell-Brown and Daniel Hutton about radiotherapy tariff and capital spending in healthcare, aimed at advancing professional knowledge in oncology.
This episode features Charlotte Hilton discussing quality improvement in radiotherapy and oncology within the NHS, focusing on workforce development and professional growth.